Amazing Building Made From 7,000 Recycled Phone Books

We have seen desks, book shelves, and tables made from old books and magazines, but never an entire building — until now. The outdated, useless used phone book has been transformed into an intriguing building block by Richard Kroeker and a handful of students in the Dalhousie University Department of Architecture in Nova Scotia. Their experimental building uses discarded phone books from the school to support the wall, and even as structural roof members. While phone books might be a dying bred, these books survive as a testament to the brilliant influence of reuse as architecture.

7000 books are stacked in columns reinforced by simple drywall metal corner beads. An amazing beam made from phone books was also developed to support the roof. The books are so dense that wood can be screwed directly to them, allowing for a beautiful basket weave façade to grace the experimental building.